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Social Ontology

Recasting Political Philosophy Through a Phenomenology of Whoness

Michael Eldred

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Social Ontology Ver. 2.0Book cover: Social Ontology
 
Available from  ontos verlag Frankfurt, Germany and online bookstores such as  Amazon under the title Social Ontology : Recasting Political Philosophy Through a Phenomenology of Whoness 2008 Hardback xiv + 688 pp. ISBN 978-3-938793-78-7 and as an e-book from  ontoslink. Also at  Google Book Search where extensive parts can be read. A second revised, emended and extended  e-book edition, Version 2.1, July 2011, 785 pp. is available.
Freedom, value, power, justice, government, legitimacy are major themes of this inquiry. It explores the ontological structure of human beings associating with one another, the basic phenomenon of society. We human beings strive to become who we are in an ongoing power interplay with each other. Thinkers called as witnesses include Plato, Aristotle, Anaximander, Protagoras, Hobbes, Descartes, Leibniz, Locke, Adam Smith, Hume, Hegel, Marx, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Schumpeter, Hayek, Carl Schmitt, Ernst Jünger, et al.

"Classical liberalism has neglected the ontological structure of the interplay of powers in the practical realm of a plurality of wills, and thus the ontological problematic of esteem, estimation, evaluation, validation, recognition, etc. among both human beings and things. In short, ... it is ontologically blind to the phenomenon of whoness. Instead it has imagined the free individual as a subject without a social world, and then tried to derive society from a bunch of atomistic individuals." Chapter 12 i)

"This is a fine study that ought to belong in any library collection that supports advanced work in social and political theory." Roderick M. Stewart, Philosophy Department, Austin College,Texas.
To find out what the book is not about, read the uncomprehending repudiation in apl. Prof. Dr. Dr. Heinz-Gerd Schmitz's review in Philosophisches Jahrbuch ISSN 00318183 Vol. 116 No. 1 2009 pp. 228-229.
A superior review from a decidedly critical Marxist perspective is Tony Smith's in Science & Society ISSN 0036-8237 Vol. 74 No. 4 2010 pp. 565-568. See my reply to Smith.

 

Copyright (c) 2000-2012 by Michael Eldred, all rights reserved. This text may be used and shared in accordance with the fair-use provisions of international and U.S. copyright law, and it may be archived and redistributed in electronic form, provided that the author is notified and no fee is charged for access. Archiving, redistribution, or republication of this text on other terms, in any medium, requires the consent of the author.

At Google Book Search:
Social Ontology at Google Book SearchLast modified: 25-Feb-2012
Version 2.1 July 2011
Emended, revised & extended e-book Version 2.0 Jan. 2011
Version 1.2 Nov. 2009
Version 1.1 July 2008
Version 1.0 Feb. 2008
First put on site 15-Feb-2008


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